Welcome to the Fishing Report. The sun shines bright on Townsend this morning. It’s a little cold though, 40 degrees at 8:15 am. Traffic is fairly brisk. I saw a police car in an abandoned parking lot. I pulled over to see if it was Frank. It was Tony. Frank had a heart attack over a week ago and I just found out yesterday while talking to the Vice-Mayor. He’s OK and he will be back to work tomorrow. I think a lot of Frank and I’m friends with our guys in uniform. They are a great team.

The river looks nice. The flow is below normal at 319 cubic feet per second. Median flow for this date is 374 cfs. We’ll probably get some thunderstorms tomorrow night. The Weather Service mentioned 2 inches of rain and some of the storms could be severe. So, the rivers may be very high on Tuesday. I wouldn’t plan a fishing trip here tomorrow and Tuesday. Maybe not on Wednesday either. Check back here to find out what’s going on mid-week.

The water temperature was 46 degrees early this morning. It will warm up today. The high is supposed to be 74 degrees.

Fishing has been excellent. At least it was until yesterday. Not many people fished yesterday because of the high wind. I did not talk to any returning anglers. We were busy as heck here. So, I know fishermen were on the streams. There were some calm moments so maybe they did catch some trout. Today will be a good day to fish though there will be some windy times.

The trout are taking a large selection of flies. There are plenty of aquatic insects on the water and I think just about anything will work right now. If you are fishing low elevation streams try Blue Quills, Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Adams, Thunderheads or even small Stimulators. I would use sizes #14 through #16 unless I saw a hatch and fish were being selective to that particular insect. Most importantly, is staying hidden and getting a good drift. If it looks like food, the trout should eat. Nymphs and wet flies should work well too. The fishing will be better in the afternoon because that’s the way it has been playing out lately. The water is chilly in the mornings and much warmer in the afternoons.

TVA has cut back on the generation at many of our local tailwaters. That’s a great break for local anglers. You can check your favorite river by clicking on the list below and to the left. Scheduled releases offer plenty of opportunities for fishermen today. You can’t always count on these schedules because they may change so be on the alert for rising water. I heard several dams were not releasing water yesterday but I didn’t look to see. I was too busy waiting on customers.

We’ll see what next week brings us. I’m planning to go fishing at least one day for smallmouth bass. As usual, everything in this sport is weather dependent. My life and our business is weather dependent. For that reason we had a tough winter.

Warmer temperatures that are predicted for the next few days looks very promising. We should see the best fishing of the year if we don’t get too much rain.

Our fly fishing classes will be offered from March to October 2011. To sign up just call the shop at 877-448-3474. You can read more on our website in the Schools Section. The fly fishing class schedule follows:

Saturday March 26 – Beginner Day One
Saturday April 9 – Beginner Day One
Saturday April 30 – Beginner Day One
Sunday May 1 – Beginner Onstream Day Two
Saturday May 7 – Beginner Day One
Saturday May 21 – Beginner Day One
Sunday May 22 – Beginner Onstream Day Two
Saturday June 11 – Beginner Day One
Saturday June 25 – Beginner Day One
Sunday June 26 – Beginner Onstream Day Two
Saturday July 9 – Beginner Day One
Saturday July 23 – Beginner Day One
Sunday July 24 – Beginner Onstream Day Two
Saturday September 10 – Beginner Day One
Saturday September 24 – Beginner Day One
Sunday September 25 – Beginner Onstream Day Two
Saturday October 8 – Beginner Day One
Saturday October 22 – Beginner Day One
Sunday October 23 – Beginner Onstream Day Two